old man trump folk broadside hits donalds dad
Last Updated : GMT 06:49:16
Arab Today, arab today
Arab Today, arab today
Last Updated : GMT 06:49:16
Arab Today, arab today

'Old Man Trump': Folk broadside hits Donald's dad

Arab Today, arab today

Arab Today, arab today 'Old Man Trump': Folk broadside hits Donald's dad

A new, upbeat American song accusing the Donald Trump
New York - AFP

It may not be music to Donald Trump's ears, but a new, upbeat American song accusing the would-be president's father of being a racist landlord makes its debut on Wednesday.

Written by folk icon Woody Guthrie decades ago and unearthed earlier this year, the lyrics are a broadside against Fred Trump, the New York businessman who made a fortune building middle-class housing.

Guthrie, a life-long champion of America's down and out, rented an apartment from Trump senior in 1950 and was so offended that one of his complexes was virtually all-white that he jotted down notes in protest.

"I suppose / Old Man Trump knows / Just how much racial hatred / He stirred up / In the bloodpot of human hearts," goes one verse in the now released "Old Man Trump," which has been set to music from another Guthrie track about housing.

Its digital launch comes with the Republican nominee sluggish in polls and trailing an enormous $40 million deficit behind Hillary Clinton's bulging war chest of donations ahead of the November election.

Further adverse publicity, in this case about the man whom he extolls and whose fortune helped launch his own business career, will be unwelcome.

"I thought it was cool to use a tune from that era, but we gave it a folk punk vibe to update it," said singer-activist Ryan Harvey, who produced the cover with singer-songwriter Ani DiFranco and Tom Morello.

"We wanted it to sound like a modern song because the content was relevant then and it's relevant now," Harvey told AFP.

"It'd be easy to write off the song and say 'yeah that was the 50s and things were different back then,' but things aren't really different. I live in Baltimore and that's a very racially segregated city."

Harvey says the song pits competing white US experiences: the racist landlord out to make money and the working class man standing up, in this case for blacks, and who wants to live in a different place.

- Fallacy of patriotism -

"What's more American than Woody Guthrie and Donald Trump?" he said.

"Woody Guthrie is somebody we associate with this old hard working America, the dust bowl, and Donald Trump is someone we associate with just the worst criminal elements of capitalism."

He hopes that Guthrie, who died in 1967, is somewhere "cracking a smile and saying good work."

"Old Man Trump," he said, is not just Trump senior, it could be "that guy in every era expressing those views and that level of disdain."

Harvey said the song exposes "the sort of fallacy of this brand of patriotism that Donald Trump is really projecting."

Guthrie wrote three different versions, but never completed the song. The musicians believe the words sat, unrecorded, in his notebook for 66 years.

Proceeds from the track will go to CK Team Relief, a coalition of independent volunteers working with refugees, and the Baltimore Right to Housing Alliance, a rights organization led by low-income residents.

Guthrie's words were originally found by biographer and British scholar Will Kaufman at the musician's archive in Oklahoma in January.

The US Justice Department in the 1970s probed Fred Trump's business over allegations it turned away African American applicants, with the case settled with an agreement to advertise to minorities.

His son has inflamed the US political establishment by running a vitriolic presidential campaign demanding a ban on Muslims and Syrian refugees into the United States, and calling Mexicans criminals.

Harvey, who admired much of Democratic candidate Bernie Sanders's campaign, said he had not yet decided whether to vote for the party's presumptive nominee, Clinton, in November.

arabstoday
arabstoday

Name *

E-mail *

Comment Title*

Comment *

: Characters Left

Mandatory *

Terms of use

Publishing Terms: Not to offend the author, or to persons or sanctities or attacking religions or divine self. And stay away from sectarian and racial incitement and insults.

I agree with the Terms of Use

Security Code*

old man trump folk broadside hits donalds dad old man trump folk broadside hits donalds dad

 



Name *

E-mail *

Comment Title*

Comment *

: Characters Left

Mandatory *

Terms of use

Publishing Terms: Not to offend the author, or to persons or sanctities or attacking religions or divine self. And stay away from sectarian and racial incitement and insults.

I agree with the Terms of Use

Security Code*

old man trump folk broadside hits donalds dad old man trump folk broadside hits donalds dad

 



GMT 12:49 2017 Wednesday ,06 September

Senegal wants to buy 10 units of ship from PT PAL Indonesia

GMT 22:57 2017 Wednesday ,01 March

Trump lays out his vision of America to Congress

GMT 21:08 2017 Sunday ,17 September

OIC condemns suicide attack in Cameroon

GMT 00:59 2017 Sunday ,10 December

hmad Zahid's Visit To Rohingya Camp

GMT 02:25 2017 Friday ,24 February

Pope in emotion-charged visit to Italy quake zone

GMT 22:26 2016 Thursday ,22 September

Indian market closes higher

GMT 05:52 2016 Wednesday ,05 October

Robin Williams’ widow details actor’s final days

GMT 18:42 2017 Saturday ,07 October

Education, Works ministries discuss cooperation

GMT 03:11 2017 Friday ,14 April

5 Sudanese soldiers killed in Yemen

GMT 15:35 2017 Saturday ,25 February

United Nations chief arrives in Saudi

GMT 20:47 2017 Saturday ,07 October

PM asserts to bolster relations with Egypt
Arab Today, arab today
 
 Arab Today Facebook,arab today facebook  Arab Today Twitter,arab today twitter Arab Today Rss,arab today rss  Arab Today Youtube,arab today youtube  Arab Today Youtube,arab today youtube

Maintained and developed by Arabs Today Group SAL.
All rights reserved to Arab Today Media Group 2021 ©

Maintained and developed by Arabs Today Group SAL.
All rights reserved to Arab Today Media Group 2021 ©

arabstoday arabstoday arabstoday arabstoday
arabstoday arabstoday arabstoday
arabstoday
بناية النخيل - رأس النبع _ خلف السفارة الفرنسية _بيروت - لبنان
arabstoday, Arabstoday, Arabstoday